What’s the Ronseal Levy? | FE Soundbite Edition 732

Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 732, February 10th 2024: What’s the Ronseal Levy

This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal by FE News: ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here is a snapshot of the latest announcements and epic thought leadership articles, from sector influencers and cool thinkers across FE and Skills this week on FE News

Gavin’s Reflective Perspective:

Happy National Apprenticeship Week 2024 everyone! I hope you had a great week of celebrating everything Apprenticeships!

Internally, National Apprenticeship Week is a massive one for us at FE News. A busy week of cool content (as you can see below), but we also practice what we preach and the majority of the team is either on or about to start their Apprenticeship journey. So an internal update, this week we had Holly hand in her portfolio and go into Gateway this week and Danielle has her final interview on Monday, so that is all exciting to get this moving during NAW.

I know NAW is a busy time for a lot of the sector, celebrating Apprentices and employers and networking to win new business. So NAW usually means a lot of travelling! Talking of travelling and celebrations, I loved it at the NCFE 175th anniversary celebrations, the Sage / Glasshouse was packed and packed full of people who are passionate about making a life-changing difference to people across the country. What a legacy, 175 years is a long, long time, which also involved a lot of baton passing. This made me think it would be fun this week to put FE Soundbite together with our newest recruit, who is also my eldest.. so I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week!

Our top three leadership pieces this week

1# A Big Number Worth Celebrating By Robert Halfon, Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education. On Tuesday, Rob wrote an exclusive for National Apprenticeship Week. Looking at how far Apprenticeships have come, but also the figures:

• There were fewer than half a million people doing apprenticeships in 2009/10. Those training programmes had no requirement to last at least a year and no minimum guided learning hours. Last year over 750,000 people participated in apprenticeships.
• This academic year we’ve already seen 130,830 apprenticeship starts (August-October 2023), up 7% on the same period the previous year.
• The number of young people under 25 starting an apprenticeship is up by 6%, at 78,960 starts, the number of achievements is up 22% so far this academic year, with 37,400 people passing their apprenticeships.
• Rob also shared his thoughts on the Ronseal Levy (compared to a potentially diluted Skills Levy), Teacher Degree Apprenticeships and more. Check it out!

2# The power of apprenticeships to change lives and economies By Kirstie Donnelly MBE, CEO, City & Guilds reflects on the positive value of apprenticeships to learners and the economy.

3# Diary of an Apprentice: My Journey into Leadership By Sakina Khan, Innovation Project Manager at NCFE starts her first entry of her ‘Diary of an Apprentice’ series on FE News! Sakina Khan details her experience of an apprenticeship, discussing her desire to pave the way for others as well as the challenge of balancing studying alongside her role

This week, we have also had some other epic exclusives:

• National Apprenticeship Week 2024: Skills For Life By Jenny Taylor, UK Lead of Early Professional Programmes, IBM
• Time to fix the Levy By Anna Clarke, Group Director: Employer Engagement and Partnerships at MK College Group.
• How to run a successful Apprentice scheme – What we have learned so far By Andy Rayner, Director of Apprenticeships and Early Careers at the Travis Perkins Group
• We need an education system fit for the future By Beatrice Barleon, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at EngineeringUK
• Celebrating 30 years of prison education By Peter Cox, Managing Director of Novus
• How can we deliver a simplified, high-quality apprenticeship system? By Simon Ashworth, AELP’s Director of Policy
• National Apprenticeship Week: Balance local talent and national skills policies By Nichola Hay MBE, Director of Apprenticeship Strategy & Policy at BPP
• What do apprentices tell us they need and how can we support more? By Emily Rock (Austin), CEO Association of Apprentice and Engagement Director, The St Martin’s Group
• Breaking down barriers in the Early Careers space By Sharon Blyfield OBE, Head of Early Careers at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
• Celebrating Apprentice Success through Digital Credentials By Matt Rogers, Service Delivery Manager at City & Guilds
• Three cheers for apprenticeships, two for the apprenticeship levy By Andy Forbes, Head of Development at the Lifelong Education Institute.

FE Voices this week

• National Apprenticeship Week 2024: Sector Response By Danny O’Meara, Junior Digital Project Manager, FE News
• New Teaching Degree Apprenticeship (TDA) will launch this autumn By Gavin O’Meara, CEO at FE News
• Reframing Recruitment and Learning with AI By Jonathan Sharp, CEO, Britannic
• Choosing the right End-Point Assessment Organisation for your apprentices By Debbie Tuisawau, End-Point Assessment Director at AIM Qualifications and Assessment Group.
• Phoebe Learoyd, a prime example of the limitless opportunity’s apprenticeships create By Zachary Wilde, Marketing & Communications Manager, OAL (Occupational Awards Limited).
• A Workforce For Longer: How Apprenticeships Have Transformed Our Approach to People By Jenny McKnight, Director of Learning and Circle Academy at Circle Health Group
• Unlocking Success: Why Apprenticeships Are Good For Business By Vikki Marriott, Mars UK’s Apprenticeship Programme Manager
• Empowering Growth: Essential Tools for Personalised Workforce Upskilling By Daniel Pell, UKI Country Manager at Workday
• Beyond the Hard Hat: The Future Construction Workforce By Nicola Hodkinson – Owner and Director of Seddon

In The Know

Look out for these faces next week!

Richard Foster-Fletcher, Ben Knight and Tina Woods

Next week is the week of love.. and pancakes… so we are trying a new thing called ‘In the Know’… so we think… no… we know you’ll love these exclusive feature articles coming next week only on FE News.

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this week’s soundbite. Now that you’re all caught up on what’s happening in the FE Sector this week, we hope you have a restful weekend!

By Gavin O’Meara, CEO and Founder of FE News and FE Careers

By Danny O’Meara, Junior Digital Project Manager, FE News